Anyone use it in their sauce(s)? Brines? Wetting agent?

Can't say I've ever heard mention of it at any time here or at PH.

I use a balsamic reduction as a drizzle over marinated (soy and honey)  skirt steak with asparagus and blue cheese on sourdough bread.    I cannot even take credit for the idea, it's a duplication of what we found in a short lived restaurant.    Done right it's pretty popular. 

DK

I use it as a finishing glaze when I'm grilling on my gas grill.

For example, I'll do chicken with a rub and then right before I pull it off, I'll brush balsamic vinegar on and then hit it on the sear burner. It's delicious.

Some 10 years or so ago a friend introduced me to balsamic over fresh sliced strawberries - it was delicious. It is also good as an ingredient with BBQ sauce to rehydrate leftover pulled pork.

The good stuff is expensive, so don't use much of it.  I sometimes like the cheap salad dressings...obviously some what questionable, but a nice difference to 1000 island...

Love it on fresh sliced tomatoes with some chiffonade basil leaves and good olive oil.

Posting later today using balsamic vinegar/maple syrup glaze over bacon wrapped dates.
Will be appetizers for ribeye steak dinner.
Z

Anyone ever had the real stuff -- the stuff aged for over 200 years and about $300 per small bottle?

I posted on this 1 hour ago and it didn't show.....

We toured northern Italy last year and visited a small balsamic producer for a tour and taste.
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We tasted their oldest, 150 years supposedly, and it was very thick with intense flavor. We purchased a 100ml bottle of 20 year old Cherry Balsamic for CAN $40.00.... The type of wood in the barrel imparts flavor as in the aging of wine. The balsamic is topped up as it evaporates using the previous years barrel and as the volume decreases is placed in ever smaller barrels until the oldest we tasted was in a 20 litre barrel. So the contents are not 100%, similar to a solara system for Port.
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I just drink the stuff..

  Not sure I ever had truly good stuff, but I love Balsamic vinegar.... have to be careful about where I use it, but I've used it in small amounts on beef jerky, and some other marinated meat items...     

  I could drizzle it over croutons with a little olive oil and eat it like popcorn, or a variety of other ways to enjoy it.